Theme Hospital

1997 · Simulation · PC

Overview

Theme Hospital (1997) is Bullfrog's comic hospital-management game, in which the player treats patients with diseases such as Bloaty Head and King Complex. It sold more than 4 million copies.

Deep Dive

The player builds a hospital, hires doctors, nurses, handymen and receptionists, and researches new rooms and cures for a stream of patients suffering from invented diseases such as Bloaty Head, King Complex and Alien DNA. Critics praised the graphics and the humour, and a later patch added multiplayer for up to four players.

Developer Story

Mark Webley produced and designed the game, with art by Gary Carr and music by Russell Shaw and Adrian Moore. EA released it for MS-DOS and Windows on 28 March 1997, and Krisalis converted it to the PlayStation in 1998. CorsixTH is an open-source remake.

Did You Know?

The original cover art was recalled because it used a green cross the developers had no right to use.
A Sega Saturn version, Sim Hospital, was cancelled.
Producer Mark Webley and artist Gary Carr later founded Two Point Studios, whose Two Point Hospital came out in 2018.